Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.

1. These writ petitions are being heard together and decided by a common order, as the issue is the same in the two petitions. For the sake of convenience, however, the facts referred here in this order have been taken from WPMS No. 792 of 2016.

2. The petitioners are the Members of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and belong to the Indian National Congress party. They have primarily challenged the show cause notice dated 19.03.2016 given by the Speaker of the House (respondent No. 1), which is annexure No. 1 to the writ petition. The notice seeks an explanation from the petitioners as to why they should not be disqualified as Members of the Assembly and the petitioners have to give their reply to this show cause notice by 05:00 p.m. on 26.03.2016.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioners would argue that the notice is given under paragraph 2(1)(a) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India, which reads as under:-

“2. Disqualification on ground of defection –

(1) Subject to the provisions of paragraphs 4 and 5, a member of a House belonging to any political party shall be disqualified for being a member of the House –

(a) if he has voluntarily given up his membership of such political party: or

(b) …..”

4. In short the allegations are that the petitioners have voluntarily given up their membership of the political party, which is, the Indian National Congress, and hence, why should they not be disqualified from the membership of the House! Admittedly the Indian National Congress is the party in power in Uttarakhand and has its Government in the State.

5. The petitioners have filed this writ petition before this Court seeking following relief:-

a. Writ order or direction in the nature of certiorari be issued quashing the notice dated 19.03.2016 annexed as Annexure 1.

b. Writ order or direction requiring the Speaker to adjourn the proceedings in pursuance of notice dated 19.03.2016 for couple of days.

c. Writ order or direction requiring the Speaker to permit Petitioners to have personal hearing alongwith their Lawyers in the matter and to cross-examine the witnesses as indicated above in the writ petition and their representations.

d. Writ order or direction directing the speaker to adjourn the matter to enable the Petitioners to consult their lawyers and to submit his reply in order to facilitate reasonable and fair hearing.

e. Such further order or directions as the Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper.

6. The show cause notice dated 19.03.2016, which is annexure 1 to the petition, alleges various acts of commissions and omissions at the hands of the petitioners, including their conduct inside, as well as outside the House, on 18.03.2016, when the Assembly was in Session. It is alleged that the petitioners raised slogans expressing their solidarity with the Opposition Party i.e. Bhartiya Janta Party (in short “BJP”), while expressing their anger on the arrest of Sri Ganesh Joshi a sitting MLA of BJP. It is also alleged that the same day, the petitioners, who are all Members of Indian National Congress, and have been elected on the symbol of Congress Party, went before His Excellency the Governor of Uttarakhand and gave a memorandum to the Governor, a memorandum signed along with the Members of the Opposition Party i.e. BJP, declaring their distrust against the Government and the Chief Minister!

7. The learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner – Mr. Dinesh Dwivedi would argue that none of the allegations contained in the show cause notice dated 19.03.2016, would constitute what can be termed as voluntarily giving up the membership of the party, as visualized in para 2(1)(a) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India, and hence the Speaker does not even have a jurisdiction to give this show cause notice to the petitioners and consequently another argument has been advanced by the counsel, which is that by doing so i.e. by giving the show cause notice the Speaker has “usurped” powers wh